The excitement of launching our summer voyage is always rather extreme. Combine this with the end of school year business, and you’ve got yourself a head cold. Not horrible, just enough to make the last week of school a slog to get through. Plus, I think Richard was honestly disappointed I didn’t change my mind about leaving Friday immediately after locking the door to Learning Center. Instead, I came home and collapsed in bed and didn’t get up again until early Saturday.
Long trips require a bit more executive functioning than our normal weekend routine. There are apps for that of course, and we are even starting to get kind of good at making sure we have all the extra stuff we’ll need to last two months away from home. Vitamins, prescriptions, protein shake packets, coffee pods are examples of things on the long term provisions list. Then it’s stuff like: don’t forget the generator, the various chargers, and the Barker (portable grey water tank). The rest is either part of our normal portage, or purchasable on the road. And then, one of the most important bits of the pre-liftoff checklist is to make sure we don’t accidentally take Kitty, who likes to sleep in Dory when she’s in the garage.
All systems being go, we started rolling well before 10am on Saturday and just headed north. We intentionally left Saturday unreserved so we could play it by ear. Our first reserved spot was in McArthur Burney for Sunday night, so we got to choose a place somewhere about half way. We selected Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area partly due to its proximity to I5, but truthfully, more because it would allow us to put a blue pin in our CA State Parks map.
I was surprised how few sites were taken on a Saturday night. This is a pretty little campground right along the Sacramento River. We didn’t see any sites that had a river view, but there were one or two where you could walk a tiny bit from the site to get a nice overlook. You definitely would not be able to launch a kayak from any of the sites. But there is a county park right next to the campground that has launch sites and day use areas. There are plenty of sites that accommodate trailers. They are paved and most are nice and level. The bathrooms are clean and nice and there is a campground host on duty to deal with shenanigans. It appears you can make reservations online, but we were one of three total campers there, so not a problem getting a spot. Not sure why. There is an RV park across the street, so perhaps people opt for hookups in the summer.
It was nice to make a short day of driving because I appreciated nappy time in the afternoon. For dinner, we drove into the town of Corning, CA and went to a place called La Plaza. This was really good, authentic Mexican food. The atmosphere was laid back and the price was very reasonable.
After dinner, we went back to Dory for an evening of no dishwashing and a big screen projection of “Aquaman.” Wow, that is a stupid movie, but colorful and adequately entertaining. Perfect thing to set the tone for another summer adventure.
Total miles: 166.0, 13.3 mpg (very windy), 3 hours 39 min. Site 27. Good cell service for both. No hookups, nice bathrooms, no dump.
You already finished school? Our kids last day is June 25 and teachers have 3 more days after that.
We’re pushing our school year earlier to align with the high school district. Next summer will end a week earlier. But then, we start back at the beginning of August.